Two NYPD officers shot and injured during confrontation with armed 'career criminal' in the Bronx: Both female officer who's also in Air Force Reserves and an 8-year veteran of the force expected to survive
Two New York City police officers were shot and injured during a confrontation with an armed suspect in the Bronx on Wednesday night.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said police received a 911 call about a man with a gun at the location.
The two officers were responding to the call on Beaumont Avenue and East 187th Street around 8:15 p.m. when gunfire broke out, Shea said during a press conference.
They identified the suspect from the description given and confronted the man sitting on the front stoop when he pulled out his gun and shot at the officers.
Two New York City police officers were shot and injured during a confrontation with an armed suspect while responding to a call of a suspicious armed man Wednesday night
The shooting took place on Beaumont Avenue and East 187th Street around 8:15pm
Both officers and the suspect were injured and taken to the hospital but expected to survive
The police shooting comes as the rate of violent crimes continue to spike in New York City and just a day after an NYPD officer was attacked in a Brooklyn Target.
A female officer, who has been with the force for one year who also serves in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, was immediately hit during the altercation on Wednesday and shot twice in the upper right arm, police said.
She returned fire about five times, hitting the suspect.
The second officer, an 8-year veteran, wrestled the suspect to the ground when he was struck in the right armpit area, with the bullet coming out of his left chest.
Shea said the whole interaction lasted a few seconds.
Both officers were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and are expected to survive from their injuries.
The suspect was shot three times and taken to the same hospital where he underwent surgery and is expected to survive.
Police announced the suspect is a career criminal and his gun was reported stolen from Georgia last year.
Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio commented on the 'extraordinary courage' the officers displayed as they worked to save lives. He said the officers ignored their bullet wounds and only spoke of their commitment to the job when he visited the officers in their hospital rooms.
Noting that the incident occurred on the eve of Thanksgiving, the mayor gave thanks to the hospital workers and the brave dedicated officers.
The suspects gun (pictured) was reported stolen in Georgia last year
He also acknowledged the rising gun violence in New York City.
'There are too many guns out there,' he said.
'This is something we have to deal with in a whole different way.'
Shea noted the incident was all recorded on bodycam footage but the video, which has not been released.
Overall crime was up 11.2% last month compared with October 2020. Robbery was up 15.8% and felony assault rose by 13%.
Meanwhile, gun violence in the borough has significantly increased, with 28% more shootings reported this year compared to last, according to police data.
De Blasio this month blamed the courts for New York City's skyrocketing crime numbers as he touted a small decrease in the murder rate while ignoring an 11% jump in overall crime over October 2020.
'In this city, real change is happening. We've got more to do for sure but real change is happening,' de Blasio said during a press conference. 'It's about precision policing, it's about neighborhood policing, these approaches work.'
De Blasio has defended 'neighborhood policing' and his decision to disband the plainclothes anti-crime unit, which has been involved in several highly-publicized police shootings.
'Commissioner Shea, who has been at this work now for, you know, most of 30 years, he felt that the unit as constructed was not only creating a disconnect with communities, and ill will and some bad incidents,' de Blasio said on WNYC's 'The Brian Lehrer Show.'
He continued: 'He thought it was also not the best way to get guns off the street and the best way to have successful prosecutions. And he wanted more of those officers in uniform, same talented officers, doing the work a different way. That happened and gun arrests have gone up, up, up.'
However, Mayor-elect Eric Adams has pledged to bring back the unit.
'That's an indictment on us that we have to disband something because the people assigned aren't doing their job. How about saying, 'You're going to do your job'? Because if that officer is abusive in a plainclothes assignment, he's going to be abusive in uniform,' said Adams, a former cop.
'No police commissioner is going to tell you, you can't police in the city without having some form of plainclothes unit,' he added.
This police shooting comes after a leaked poll showed more than half of NYPD officers regret joining the force.
One officer went so far as to say they 'can't wait to run out of here' amid historic crime rates, mass riots, anti-police rhetoric and 'far-left leaning politics' that are 'destroying' the city.
The internal NYPD survey showed 56% of officers polled would have chosen a different career, with some later saying their profession was sullied by the Black Lives Matter movement, under-the-microscope criticisms and liberal approaches to crime.
About 80% of about 6,000 respondents - who are of varying ranks - said they fear fighting crime could lead to lawsuits, criminal liability or discipline, according to the New York Post, which obtained the leaked memo of poll results.
'There is no other profession that is scrutinized as much as we are,' an NYPD sergeant told the outlet. 'Far-left leaning politics are absolutely destroying the city of New York.' NYPD members were reportedly polled in March.
Meanwhile, 65 New York City police officers are set to be disciplined for their conduct during the citywide protests following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota last year.
Thirty-seven of the most serious offenders will be subjected to an internal trial, which can result in a range of penalties from forfeited vacation days to suspension and ultimately termination from the department.
Nearly 80 percent of those who participated in the March survey said they don't believe the city will be less dangerous in two years, and the results came as no surprise to union brass.
'New York City police officers are well past our breaking point, and Mayor [Bill] de Blasio and the outgoing City Council are still piling on with policies that punish cops and erode public safety,' Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, told the NYPost.
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